Sophia Bush Says That She’s Always Been a Feminist

And she wants you to help girls get the educations they deserve.

When I asked actress Sophia Bush the maybe-cliche question on when exactly she realized she was feminist, she paused for a moment in her makeup chair on set and shook her head. “I don’t think there was ever a time where I wasn’t,” she said. “Wanting to be treated equally has always been my desire. I want to see us all empower one another.” She’s been outspoken on Twitter about feminism before, so her latest move makes perfect sense. For International Women’s Day — which is today, for those not in the know — the Chicago P.D. star has teamed up with beauty brand EcoTools to jumpstart a social conversation around feminism, beauty, female solidarity, and sisterhood.
For every message on twitter using the hashtag #MyTrueBeauty with the tag @ecotools, EcoTools has pledged to donate $1 to The Girl Project, an initiative that supports charities for girls' educations worldwide. The Girl Project is Glamour’s commitment to helping the more than 50 million girls around the world who are denied access to secondary education. “I want this to be be a way to highlight women’s creativity around the world and help break down barriers for educational access,” said Sophia. Even just one tweet in this campaign will go toward providing girls in the United States and abroad access to school supplies, mentorship programs, and help pay tuition.
“When you consider that $5 can buy a girl here in the United States the pencils and notebooks she needs for the semester, just $150 can help pay for an entire year of tuition for a girl in a developing country,” said Cindi Leive, editor-in-chief of Glamour. Since EcoTools has pledged up to $100,000 for this tweet campaign with Sophia Bush, that’s buying a whole lot of girls access to an education. Who knows? Maybe they’ll be the next super woke Sophia Bush, put together the next Broadway production exclusively by women like our other fave Lupita Nyong’o, or become the next Katherine Johnson, one of the women who did the mathematical calculations that got NASA into space. These things don’t happen in a vacuum — they happen when girls are supported and given an education and a chance to thrive.
“This is an opportunity for women to raise our voice and empower, and hopefully highlight other organizations that do the same. I’d love this to just be the beginning — I want to see everyone sharing this space, and empowering each other,” said Sophia. Is all this talk making you wanna bust some barriers down against #patriarchy? Don’t stop at just the hashtag: you can make your own donation alongside EcoTools’, right at The Girl Project’s website. So what are you doing? Get to tweeting: it might actually help change the world.